One of the largest annual gatherings of Commonwealth Parliamentarians has taken place in November 2017 at the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) hosted by the CPA Bangladesh Branch and the Parliament of Bangladesh. The annual flagship event brought together over 500 Parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and decisionmakers from across the Commonwealth for this unique conference and networking opportunity. The CPC offered the prospect of the coming together of the CPA’s global membership to address the critical issues facing today’s parliaments.

With the ever increasing focus on greater scrutiny of Parliamentarians and the overall public trust deficit in Parliaments, the CPA’s annual conference offered the opportunity for Members to benefit from professional development, supportive learning and the sharing of best practice with colleagues from Commonwealth Parliaments together with the participation of leading international organisations. The overall main conference theme for the 63rd CPC was ‘Continuing to enhance the high standards of performance of Parliamentarians’.

To read the Conference Concluding Statement for the 63rd CPC please click here.

Conference news - for all of the news from the 63rd CPC please click here or on the news icon on the right. The 63rd CPC daily bulletins published at the conference are also available to download please click here.

For images from the 63rd CPC available to download please visit the CPA's Flickr webpage - please click here.

The CPA President and outgoing Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee, Hon. Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, MP, Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh, hosted the 63rd CPC, which took place from 1 to 8 November 2017 (inclusive of arrival and departure dates) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference is the annual conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the conference was a critical year for the CPA as Members elected their new Chairperson for a three year term. Please click here for the CPA President's Welcome Message.

The conference programme included two plenaries and eight workshops, with some workshops including presentations by experts from international organisations. Included in the workshops was one selected by the Host Branch, one on a Gender-related theme and one topic from the topics submitted by Small Branches.

Workshops were held during the conference on a wide range of topics including the role of Parliamentarians in building stronger ties within Commonwealth; giving voice to the youth: mechanisms for ensuring effective participation of the youth in the governance process; how can CPA Members work with their own governments in ensuring that the SDG goals have a proper gender lens, to ensure success in the areas of alleviating poverty and women’s empowerment; small jurisdictions and big problems: Logistics and infrastructure challenges. Data papers for the Conference workshops and sessions are available - please click here for more details.

During the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, there were also be a number of additional conferences and meetings including: 36th Small Branches Conference; meetings of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP); CPA Executive Committee; CPA General Assembly including the Election of the Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association connects, develops, promotes and supports Parliamentarians and their staff to identify benchmarks of good governance and the implementation of the enduring values of the Commonwealth.